Conversion, Apostasy and Martyrdom: the Case of Sol
Hatchuel
This article discusses the concept of conversion, apostasy and martyrdom
in the story of Sol Hatchuel, a young Jewish girl who was executed in Fez in
1834 after neighbours testified that she had converted to Islam. Texts
recounting Sol’s story in Judeo-Arabic, Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Spanish and
French are compared. Each set of texts, while recounting the same historical
events, tells the story according to the literary, religious and political
perspectives of the different authors and audiences. Gender discourse, religious
polemics, and, in the case of the European texts, colonial discourse are
incorporated in the retelling of Sol¹s story. In addition, this story shows that for
certain groups conversion, apostasy and martyrdom are often interconnected.